The next day, Yue left home early, heading straight for the Uchiha clan. It wasn't until he was on the road that he realized a problem—how was he supposed to find Yūhi Kurenai?
Upon arriving at his destination, Yue couldn't just walk in and look for Itachi. As before, a proud-looking Uchiha member begrudgingly went to notify Itachi on his behalf. If it weren't for the fact that he was the Fourth Hokage's son, he would've definitely been turned away at the door.
Such an arrogant clan—Yue believed that, sooner or later, they would become the target of the village's various factions.
A great man once said: "Win over the majority and strike down the few."
Judging by the current reputation of the Uchiha clan within the village, they had essentially made enemies out of everyone. Yue thought that perhaps he should give Itachi a warning someday.
Leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, he patiently waited until Itachi finally appeared. After briefly explaining his request, Itachi didn't think much of it and agreed immediately. Then, using the Longquan Sword at Yue's waist, he cut off a small piece of skin from his finger and handed it over.
Speaking of which, today was the first time Yue had worn the Longquan Sword on his waist. Given his height, it looked a little out of place, but it was still an improvement compared to before.
After obtaining Itachi's cells, Yue carefully stored them away, thanked him, and prepared to leave. Now, he had to figure out how to find Kurenai.
Aside from the Three-Color Dango shop, Yue couldn't think of any other place where he might run into her. After all, he didn't know much about Kurenai.
He decided to wait near the shop during lunchtime and dinner, hoping to run into her by chance.
If that didn't work…
Yue glanced at the pedestrians on the street, thinking to himself—just a small piece of flesh, it probably wouldn't hurt more than scraping a knee...
Suppressing that thought, he headed home.
As usual, he greeted Kushina upon returning, then retreated to his room.
He placed Itachi's cell sample under the microscope and began his observation.
Compared to his own cells, Itachi's had significantly lower vitality. However, they were still far beyond Yue's understanding.
His desire to gather more samples grew stronger—he wanted to find out whether he possessed an advantage at the cellular level.
After packing everything up, Yue left his room and sat in the living room with Kushina, watching TV. The morning passed quickly.
Checking the time, he saw it was almost lunchtime.
He told Kushina that he was going out to find someone and wouldn't be eating at home. After handing him some money, she let him go.
Yue headed straight for the dango shop. At this hour, there weren't many customers yet, so he found a seat, ordered a few skewers, and began waiting.
He had to admit—the shop's business was thriving. When he last ate with Kurenai, she mentioned that this place and Ichiraku Ramen were the two most famous food spots in Konoha.
However, Yue had eaten far better food in the past, so he didn't find it particularly impressive.
With people coming and going, Yue kept his eyes closed, activating his Kagura Mind's Eye to search for Kurenai's chakra. He had already memorized its signature, so as long as she entered his sensory range, he would notice.
Still, he didn't extend his full range. Minato had previously warned him that freely using sensory abilities in the village could easily offend people.
An hour passed, and the peak crowd had come and gone.
Yue doubted he'd be able to find Kurenai today. Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly sensed her chakra—only for it to disappear moments later.
He quickly ordered ten skewers of dango to go and hurried toward where he had sensed her.
While running, he narrowed his sensory field into a fan shape, quickly pinpointing Kurenai's location before rushing over at full speed.
"Kurenai!"
"Oh, it's you. What's up? I don't have time to practice genjutsu with you today—I have a mission this afternoon."
She looked a little tired, probably just returning from a mission.
"This is for you."
Yue handed her the bag of dango. When she saw the three-color skewers, Kurenai's red eyes lit up slightly, but she didn't take them right away.
"Knowing your personality, you definitely want something from me. Spill it. And how did you find me?"
"I sensed your chakra. I need a small piece of your… skin, just a tiny bit. I'll treat you to dango more often in exchange."
Yue knew this request was strange, even rude. His relationship with Kurenai wasn't like his relationship with Itachi, so he felt a little awkward asking.
"You have sensory abilities? And you were just randomly scanning people in the village?" Kurenai wasn't too bothered, but she warned, "If some big clans find out, you could get into serious trouble. Also, do you have any idea what a certain someone was doing not too long ago?"
This was the biggest issue Yue faced—Konoha's values did not tolerate biological research; it was considered taboo.
"I know what I'm doing. Today, I only used my sensory abilities to find you. Besides, I just want to observe different people's cells."
After staring at him for a moment, Kurenai relented. She didn't think Yue was some kind of extremist—he was just a little cold in personality.
"Fine! But you have to bring me dango for the next few days—and deliver it to my mission site! I've been so busy lately I barely have time to eat."
"Deal. Thanks."
"Hmph."
She pouted arrogantly before pulling out a kunai from her pouch, slicing off a small piece of skin, and handing it to Yue.
"I'm leaving now. Don't ask me for this again—it hurts!"
Grabbing the dango from Yue's hands, Kurenai took a bite and walked off happily.
Having achieved his goal, Yue headed home.
Back in his room, he began observing Kurenai's cells.
After a while, he reached a conclusion: in terms of cell vitality, Kurenai's cells were roughly three times more active than an ordinary human's from his past life. However, they were far weaker than Itachi's, let alone his own.
Yue realized he needed to find some ordinary people's samples. Since Kurenai was a ninja, he couldn't determine whether chakra users had fundamentally different cells compared to those without.
Why were their cell vitality levels so different? Yue suspected bloodline inheritance played a role, but he lacked enough samples from different clans to confirm it.
His father, Namikaze Minato, was from a civilian background, while Yue himself carried a pure Uzumaki bloodline with all the associated traits.
He considered using Kushina's cells for comparison, but getting a sample from her wouldn't be easy… His microscope also couldn't analyze hair or dead skin properly.
He still needed at least one more Uchiha sample to compare with Itachi's and another bloodline-based ninja clan's sample.
However, getting those would be tricky—Orochimaru's recent downfall had made such research even more taboo.
Setting those thoughts aside, Yue took out his and Itachi's samples for another round of observation, hoping to make new discoveries.
Since his own cells had been left out overnight, their vitality had slightly decreased, but they were still far more active than Kurenai's.
Yue estimated that even without special preservation, his cells could survive for over two days.
"…Huh? What's going on with Itachi's cells?"
Yue was shocked.
Under his microscope, Itachi's cells were all dead!
It had only been about six hours—based on their initial activity, they should have survived at least a full day without special preservation.
"Is this an inherent trait of Uchiha cells? Or…?"
Could Itachi's body have a defect?
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